PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/DIRECTOR

Dr. Terence Sanger, M.D., Ph.D.

Dr. Terence Sanger is the Chief Scientific Officer of CHOC Children's and Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the UCI School of Engineering. His research focuses on understanding the origins of pediatric movement disorders from both a biological and a computational perspective. The primary goal of his research is to discover new methods for treating children with movement disorders. Dr. Sanger coordinates the Childhood Motor Study Group (CMSG) and the NIH Taskforce on Childhood Movement Disorders. He runs the pediatric movement disorders clinic at CHOC Children's in the department of Neurology. His training includes background in Child Neurology, Electrical Engineering, Signal Processing, Control Theory, Neural Networks, and Computational Neuroscience.

Email: terry[at]sangerlab.net

RESEARCH ASSOCIATES

Estefania Hernandez-Martin, Ph.D

Estefania Hernandez-Martin is a postdoctoral research associate at the Sanger lab. She received her Ph.D. degree in Healthy Science (Summa Cum Laude) from the University of La Laguna in 2018 which focused on neuroimaging techniques in human brain. Estefania's research focuses on signal processing, modeling, multivariate statistics and data interpretation for both electrophysiological and neuroimaging data sets. Moreover, she develops experimental design, setup configuration, data recordings, and data analysis using a variety of algorithms and computational neural networks to build a signal flow model to explain brain behavior.

Email: ​estefania[@]sangerlab.net

Jonathan Realmuto, Ph.D.

Jonathan Realmuto is a postdoctoral research associate at the Sanger lab. He received his Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Washington in 2017. Jonathan’s research focuses on human-robot interactions arising in wearable and collaborative robotics. Using tools from control theory, optimization, biomechanics and robotics he aims to design wearable robots that restore, assist and augment human mobility and perception.

​Email:realmuto[at]sangerlab.net​

CLINICAL STAFF

Jennifer MacLean, MSN, RN, CPNP

Jennifer MacLean is a nurse practitioner in the pediatric movement disorders clinic at Children's Hospital Orange County and serves as clinical coordinator at SangerLab. She received her bachelor's and master's degrees from Vanderbilt University. She currently treats pediatric patients with a variety of movement disorders, helps to recruit subjects, and serves as sub-investigator for several Sangerlab research studies. She is predominantly involved in research and clinical management of children with dystonia to optimize their treatment, including those undergoing deep brain stimulation.

Email: ​jennifer[at]sangerlab.net

Aprille Tongol, B.A.

​Aprille is the clinical research study administrator for the Sanger Lab. She received her B.A. in Biochemistry at the University of San Diego. She currently manages human subject board submissions at CHOC and provides support for other study centers. She also coordinates a research project in the Sanger Lab that studies whether wearing a vibrotactile biofeedback device may improve motor function in children and young adults with dystonia, hypertonia or spasticity.

Email: aprille[at]sangerlab.net

GRADUATE STUDENTS

​Enrique Argüelles

Enrique received his B.S. in Mechatronics Engineering from the National Autonomous University of México (UNAM). He is currently working towards his PhD in Biomedical Engineering at USC. His interests lie in designing and developing medical devices for neuromotor recovery and rehabilitation. His current work includes developing mathematical models to describe the underlying physiological mechanisms of deep brain stimulation to treat dystonic symptoms, and how these mechanisms influence the spinal and transcortical responses to external perturbations.

Email: jenrique.arguelles[at]gmail.com

Maral Kasiri, M.S.

Maral Kasiri is a PhD student at Sanger Lab. She received her B.S. with honors in Biomedical Engineering from Tehran Polytechnic University in 2016 and received her M.S. in Biomedical Engineering from USC in 2018. Her focus is on understanding the effects of vibrotactile biofeedback on motor learning in children with neuromuscular disorders. Maral is interested in understanding how the brain controls human movement and how it can be stimulated to improve the movements in people with neuromuscular disorders.​Email: maral.kasiri[at]gmail.com

​Jessica Vidmark, M.S.

Jessica Vidmark is a PhD student at Sanger Lab. She received her B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Florida Institute of Technology in 2016 with summa cum laude honors and the Faculty Honors Award. In 2018, she received her M.S. in Medical Engineering from KTH Royal Institute of Technology. Jessica is investigating cerebral connectivity in deep motor regions by studying evoked potentials. Jessica wants to unmask the mechanisms of deep brain stimulation and use her findings to provide the most effective treatment possible for our patients with movement disorders.​​Email: ​jvidmark[at]uci.edu

RESEARCH STAFF

​Ritt Givens, B.S.

Ritt Givens is a research technician at the Sanger Lab. He received his B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from the USC Viterbi School of Engineering in 2019, graduating as the valedictorian. His work focuses on understanding how vibrotactile biofeedback affects motor control learning in children with musculoskeletal disorders. He is interested in the design, development, and regulation of medical devices that can positively impact the lives of patients with motor control deficiencies. Ritt plans to attend medical school in the Fall of 2020.​Email: ​givens.ritt[at]gmail.com